March 20, 2025 - 1 Samuel 17-20

Who doesn’t love the story of David and Goliath!  The righteous underdog taking down the evil giant!  We know the story, and we tell it or, at least, recall it often.  The part that always sticks out to me is David’s response to Saul, who mocked him, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth” (17:33).  David responded, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (17:37).  The prime consideration for David was neither his smallness nor Goliath’s greatness.  He did not overestimate his own strength nor did he cower before this great man of war because his trust was in God.  He had proof of God’s faithfulness; God had already delivered him from beasts much greater and stronger than himself.  He looked back on those episodes and, knowing that God is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow, he knew that that same God could deliver him as he had done in the past.  To remember God’s past faithfulness emboldens us for the present and the future.  The God who has walked with us in the past surely will continue to do so.  What assurance is ours!

The battle is the Lord’s!

The harvest fields are white;

how few the reaping hands appear,

their strength how slight!

Yet victory is sure,

we face a vanquished foe;

then forward with the risen Christ

to battle go!

The battle is the Lord’s!

Not ours in strength or skill,

but his alone in sov’reign grace,

to work his will.

Ours, counting not the cost,

unflinching, to obey;

and in his time his holy arm

shall win the day.   --Edith Margaret Clarkson (1960)